New Posting Features - Latest Blog in Postbit Using Carp for vBulletin 4.x

This is an update for nevetS' mod for 3.5 at https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=91781 and gotlinks' update for 3.6 at https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=163718 to make it work in 4.x.

If you already have Carp Free or Carp LE or Carp Evolution, great. If not, you'll have to download a copy from http://carp.docs.geckotribe.com/download.php (Carp Free is now renamed Carp LE). If you need to install Carp first, golinks has some instructions at https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=163718 and there are of course more detailed instructions at http://carp.docs.geckotribe.com/

Now, modify your vBulletin installation.

1. Add three custom profile fields - in my setup, they are as follows, but make a note of the field# for later in case yours are different:

1. Name = Blog RSS Feed (RSS Only!)
   Single-Line Text Box Editable, Searchable, Members field6
   The member enters his blog feed here.
   
2. Latest Blog Title
   Single-Line Text Box Searchable, Members field7
   This is filled automatically by Carp with the latest blog post at that feed.
   
3. Blog URL
   Single-Line Text Box Searchable, Members field8
   This is the URL to the blog, filled by Carp and used in postbit to make the blog title a live URL.

2. Create a new plugin called Carp Configuration and attach it to hook location: global_bootstrap_init_start

PHP Code:

global $vbulletin;
require_once './carp/carp.php';
CarpConf('carperrors',0);
CarpConf('cacheinterval',3);
CarpConf('cborder','');
CarpConf('poweredby','');
CarpConf('maxitems',1);
CarpConf('iorder','link');
CarpConf('linktarget',1); 

3. Create another plugin called Get Users Blog Entry and attach this to hook location: postbit_display_start

PHP Code:

global $vbulletin;
ob_start();
CarpCacheShow($post[field6]);
$blogentry = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();
vB_Template::preRegister('postbit',array('blogentry' => $blogentry)); 

4. Edit postbit (and/or legacy):

Find:

PHP Code:

<vb:if condition="$post['rank']">
                        <span class="rank">{vb:raw post.rank}</span>
                    </vb:if> 

Add after:

PHP Code:

<!-- latest blog hack -->
<vb:if condition="$post['field6']">
<span class="smallfont">Recent Blog: <a href="{vb:raw post.field8}" target="_blank">{vb:raw blogentry}</a></span>
</vb:if>
<!-- end latest blog hack --> 

Remember to change field6 and field8 to correspond to the numbers of the custom fields for your forum.

For postbit_legacy, use this code instead (thanks to 993ti who posted this here:

PHP Code:

ob_start();  
CarpCacheShow($post[field6]);  
$blogentry = ob_get_contents();  
ob_end_clean();  
vB_Template::preRegister('postbit_legacy',array('blogentry' => $blogentry)); 

[djbaxter]

If you wish to restrict the latest blog display to only members in good standing, follow the instructions above but use the following code for postbit:

PHP Code:

<!-- latest blog hack for members in good standing only -->
<vb:if condition="!in_array($bbuserinfo[usergroupid],array(G1,G2,G3,G4,G5))">
<vb:if condition="$post['field6']">
<span class="smallfont">Recent Blog: <a href="{vb:raw post[field8]}" target="_blank">{vb:raw blogentry}</a></span>
</vb:if>
</vb:if>
<!-- end latest blog hack for members in good standing only --> 

Replace "G1,G2,G3,G4,G5" by the usergroup ID numbers of any groups who should NOT show the latest blog.

For example, I restrict privileges for new members for the first 10 posts so they don't get to display their blogs. Similarly, I don't want blog titles and links displayed for banned members.

Therefore, I disable this for the following groups:

New member (Registered Members): 2
Probation: 22
Banned: 20
Blocked: 30
Post Moderation: 28

so I would use the following code in postbit:

PHP Code:

<!-- latest blog hack for members in good standing only -->
<vb:if condition="!in_array($bbuserinfo[usergroupid],array(2,20,22,28,30))">
<vb:if condition="$post['field6']">
<span class="smallfont">Recent Blog: <a href="{vb:raw post[field8]}" target="_blank">{vb:raw blogentry}</a></span>
</vb:if>
</vb:if>
<!-- end latest blog hack for members in good standing only --> 

[993ti]

Nice mod, thx, comes in handy on my forum
Might want to add that if you use postbit_legacy the plugincode of Get Users Blog Entry should be

ob_start();  
CarpCacheShow($post[field6]);  
$blogentry = ob_get_contents();  
ob_end_clean();  
vB_Template::preRegister('postbit_legacy',array('blogentry' => $blogentry));

[djbaxter]

Thanks, 993ti. Added in OP and credited to you.

[ChaibiAlaa]

I did everything, and the blog rss isn't showing, only the text "Recent Blog :" is showing up, no URL neither RSS title .. I did EVERYTHING without any expetion ! I even changed cache time to 1 minute and still nothing shown from my blog, here is the url of a thread where nothing shown in my profile http://www.blogging-talk.com/showthr...?t=3&p=4#post4

[ChaibiAlaa]

Now working very great when I used the postbit_legacy code I was too Dunky first time

[Tryppnotic69]

Works great on 4.0.3

Thanks so much for this great mod!

[daveaite]

It works perfectly but it affects my cms when a comment is posted in one of the articles via CMS and not the forums (SUITE Version 4.06), trying to figure out why it causes this error:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function CarpCacheShow() in /home/buypoe/public_html/includes/class_postbit.php(284) : eval()'d code on line 2

Is it because CMS does not use postbit and its trying to find it?

[djbaxter]

Try this:

1. Go into Admin CP | Plugins & Products | Plugin manager
2. Find and edit the two p[lugins: Carp Configuration and Get Users Blog Entry
3. Change the hook locations for both to global_complete

[djbaxter]

Apparently, that didn't work for davaeaite.

Until recently, I wasn't using the CMS because it was too buggy. I'm just trying it out now and obviously something needs to be changed to register these variables more globally.

I'll update when/if I can figure it out. For now, it works for forum only.